She is just so damn cute and lovely at the moment! She is certainly a talker, and quite often a little singer as well. She can sing the whole song of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and get some of the words in the right places as well as some of the right sounds in other places.

She has just this week started putting two words together, such as ‘Mummy, up!’

She has started spotted herself in mirrors like in the bedroom, or in the car and pointing at herself saying ‘Cleo there!’

She is always in a good mood, always smiling and very loving. Her ‘duddles’ are the best in the world, as she pulls you in tight, snuggles her face in, and with a spare hand she strokes your face or your hair. I could duddle her for ages.

We tried to get her to pronounce it ‘cuddle’ and ever since then, when playing she will start randomly saying to herself…’c,c,c,c,c….duddle!’ I want her to say duddle forever.

She likes cleaning her own teeth, and will sometimes let me finish them off.

She tells me when she has done a poo, and is also becoming aware of when she is doing a wee wee. Potty training should be easy with this one.

She and Charlie have a very special bond. He adores her and she adores him.

She has developed an awesome laugh. It is deep, and throaty and sounds almost devious. She makes us all fall apart laughing when she gets the giggles. I am currently listing to her having a bath upstairs and she is cackling away. People always comment on my raucous laughter. I suspect she inherited it from me.

She is a very good girl at sleeping, and 80% of the time will sleep though without disturbing me. She alternates between a cot in our room and a cot in the siblings room. As soon as we move, she will have her own bedroom and I suspect she will enjoy having her own space to fall asleep in.

She still has milk in the evenings and in the mornings.

She has become a little more attached to her dummy recently (she can say dummy perfectly) and she needs it to fall asleep when laying in her cot.

Charlie boy is 6! We didn’t have a party for him this year, instead asking him what outing he would like to do. He chose a day on the Norfolk Broads, and we invited my Mum and Dad to come along as well.

We hired a nice boat with a toilet, a sink and a fridge as well as a good sized covered area and cabin and hired it for 8 hours.

The weather was very lovely, and we were very lucky as we have had minging weather recently!!!

He had his cake and opened some presents on board as well which was novel!

My Mum made him a super hero cape. He is very into super heroes at the moment despite refusing to actually watch any. He likes the comics, the toys and the posters etc… as well as acting it out with his friends, but the cartoons and the films scare him. He is still a very sensitive little thing.

Long term readers may remember I was very upset at his birthday last year as his sheer lack of joy in the proceedings, and his lack of being grateful for his gifts. This year was very very different. He was pure joy all day. He loved his presents, and was polite and thankful for everything we did for him. I am very proud of the progress he has made in a year. The changes we made to our parenting have definitely helped.